People, planet, and precautionary planning: How Learning Centers in Indonesia are supporting responsible development through community and nature safeguards

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Indonesia Learning Centers National Learning Center Training on Marine Biodiversity in Makassar, South Sulawesi, May 2022

Indonesia rarely if ever stands still. Blessed with 25,000 different flowering plants, 1,592 distinctive bird species, and over 800 million hectares of forest, vibrant biodiversity abounds across the country’s 17,000 islands. This natural dynamism also extends to its economy. Over recent decades, Indonesia has experienced rapid economic growth, bringing with it huge gains in terms of poverty reduction and improvements in people’s livelihoods.

Ensuring that economic growth strengthens environmental protection and community well-being is certainly possible, but it requires diligent planning and close oversight. So how can this balance best be achieved? An important part of the World Bank’s answer is its Environmental and Social Framework (ESF), which, among other features, contains clear standards and guidelines for project design and execution.

A core element of the ESF’s Environmental and Social Standards, which apply to all World Bank-financed investments, is the completion of an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA). ESIAs are carried out at the beginning of all major projects to identify possible risks and draw up steps to mitigate these. In this way, they act as an important precautionary measure; but they also take considerable time and technical know-how to complete.

 

Learning Centers: Advancing responsible development

In recognition of this last fact, the World Bank has set up innovative Learning Centers for Environmental and Social Sustainability in various countries around the world to build the capacity of borrowers to carry out ESIAs effectively. These centers provide tailored training, with a particular focus on catering for sector-specific issues and on responding to regionally specific environmental challenges.

network of such centers has been in operation In Indonesia since 2017. Alongside their core curriculum, the centers cover locally relevant subjects such as biodiversity conservation, management of Indigenous Peoples, and land acquisition and resettlement. Three years ago, a National Learning Center (NLC) was established to bring all the centers together. The NLC acts as a knowledge hub, ensuring that the training offered keeps pace with global best practices while also remaining grounded in local, lived realities. To date, the various Learning Centers in Indonesia have provided training to 1,431 participants from both the public and private sectors.

 

Securing Sustainability: West Java Pumped Storage Hydropower Plant

A prime example of how such insights play out in practice is provided by the Upper Cisokan Pumped Storage Hydropower Project. Located in West Java, the $755-million clean energy power plant is the first of its kind in the country. Due for completion in 2028, its provision of reliable, renewable power and storage capacity promises to improve Indonesia’s energy security while also contributing to its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 41 per cent below business as usual by 2030.    

The World Bank-backed project encompasses two important rivers—the Cisokan River and the Cirumamis River—and boasts an abundance of biodiversity. In addition to a wide range of native flora and fauna, for example, it is home to endangered species, including the Javan Leopard, Owa Jawa, and Javan Pangolin.

Biodiversity Learning Centers Protecting Javan Leopard, Owa Jawa and Javan Pangolin amid the development of pumped storage hydropower in West Java, Indonesia

 

Ensuring that tight environmental safeguards are in place is therefore a top priority. The pumped storage project, which includes the construction of two interlinked reservoirs, was subject to a highly detailed ESIA prior to the World Bank’s approval. Key to the successful completion of this ESIA were the insights gleaned by the project team through the National Learning Center. This assistance helped ensure that the impacts of the power plant’s construction and future operation are now ringfenced by a suite of comprehensive social and environmental measures. These include provisions for habitat protection, community relocation, resource efficiency, land management, cultural heritage, and stakeholder engagement, among other proactive management steps.

 

Looking Ahead: Scaling Up National Capacity

As Indonesia continues to pursue economic growth, the need for robust environmental standards is set to increase. The World Bank is prioritizing further capacity building efforts, building on the legacy of the Learning Centers and similar initiatives worldwide. This is part of the World Bank’s agenda for streamlining and strengthening implementation of the ESF, a set of ten actions that aim to place more reliance on the use of Borrower Frameworks for environmental and social risk management, strengthening them where gaps between these national systems and the ESF are identified, such as on biodiversity impact assessment and mitigation, and building national capacity to deliver strong oversight in project implementation.

Capacity-building initiatives like the Learning Centers are just one part of what is needed. Continued investment in training, environmental monitoring, and enforcement will also be essential for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services while reducing uncertainty for business.

Success in these areas promises to shape the trajectory of Indonesia’s future development, ensuring economic growth comes with, rather than instead of, greater environmental and social protections. Striking this balance is what the World Bank’s Environmental and Social Framework aims to achieve.


David Kaczan

Senior Economist, World Bank

Feng Ji

Senior Environmental Engineer

Nicolas Sans

Lead Energy Specialist

Tim Martin

Biodiversity Advisor

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